Robin Hood Responds

To the Editors of The Crimson:

The staff of the Haymarket Peoples Fund has objections to both the tone and inaccurate content of the article "Cambridge Socialist Group Seeks Student Donations" published in The Crimson Wednesday, March 2. This article covered Haymarket's forum for Harvard-Radcliffe students the previous evening "Robin Hood Was Right: Funding Movements for Social Change."

Besides the general incoherence of the piece, it contains misleading statements concerning the work of Haymarket. The second paragraph begins with the "quote:" "What we're doing is organizing the working classes, women and others, directly affected by the worst aspects of capitalism to get together and question the mold society has put them into." The Haymarket staff is not organizing any constituency, nor would presume to. Haymarket serves as a resource to grassroots community organizations which are doing organizing work for the purpose of empowering their membership and working people in their struggle for control over their own lives.

Haymarket's donors, board, and staff are not interested in "helping others," with the patronizing condescension the phrase implies. Haymarket, unlike traditional foundations, is taking money out of the hands of people who hold power in this country, and putting into the hands of activists in tenant organizations, women's centers, and rank and file labor movements who decide on its utilization. Haymarket is working to be a resource for change, not charity. Haymarket Peoples Fund   2 Holyoke St.   Cambridge, MA 02138